One week in Japan plus visit to Seoul itinerary

12 comments

1. That’s not a holiday. That’s a whirlwind tour of Japan’s and Korea’s airports, immigration lines, hotel lobbies and train stations. You’re turning nearly 20 hours of prime holiday time into dead time. Probably something you could do if you have a month in Japan, but I’m not willing to waste an entire day of a 7 day trip like that.

   If this trip is to visit your friend, I’d honestly just make it a 100% Korean trip.

2. It’s not efficient use of your time to go to country A, then B, then back to country A, especially when you’re at country B for a single full day.

3. Im reading your itinerary and getting exhausted by the commute. Even the day trip to Nagoya sounds terrible, not to mention the flight to Seoul and back.

4. Where is this sailor moon museum? The only one I see is in Roppongi but that was last year. It’s not there anymore.

5. I’d personally cut the Seoul trip as it seems not worth it at all to fly for 6-7 hours round trip just to stay 1 day in Seoul. I’d also consider spending the night in Nagoya so you aren’t so tired! I bet there is other fun stuff to do in Nagoya to justify at least 1 night there. 🙂

6. Where is home? Congrats on your first international trip!

   Generally, any time you have a plane trip in the itinerary it kills a lot of time. Security lines, customs lines, immigration lines often go fast but sometimes can really slow you down and sap a lot of energy. Not to mention delays and cancellations that happen infrequently.

   Other types of travel, like by car or train, are less time consuming but still take time and energy.

   What you’re planning here looks more than exhausting. Look at the actual distances you’re planning on traveling on those heavier days. Most are possible but you’re killing so much time and energy for little benefit.

   One other thing. You say you land at Haneda early in the morning. Most hotels won’t let you check in until the afternoon, so you won’t even be able to rest after traveling there before putting in a long…long day.

7. Could you fly into/back from Seoul? That would at least save you some some flying back and forth. We arrived in Seoul and flew out of Narita on our recent trip (which admittedly was 3 weeks, not 1. Wouldn’t personally got to both places if I only had one week).

   If you are to go ahead with your (wild) itinerary maybe look into:
   – arrive in Tokyo
   – train to Nagoya
   – fly from Nagoya to Seoul
   – fly back to the US from Seoul.

   That would at least cut out a lot of this back and forth.

8. Tokyo National Museum is one of the world’s best museums, and is not a “tourist trap”.

9. Make sure to check out the Laforet mall in Harajuku, with its (small) Sailor Moon shop. In my opinion it had better merchandise than the Museum. I was disappointed at least (went in 2022).

   And do you consider looking for the Sailor Moon manholes around Shibuya Koen?

   Like others said, a very very busy schedule. And remember, hotels usually only allow check-in after 3 pm.

10. One day in Korea is also just not enough. Meeting your friend is a very expensive trip, dont expect you can do many things in 1x day. When do you want to go to a different country to make sure it is worth it. Maybe 2-3days. For 7 days holiday, I suggest just staying 1 place or 2 maximum in 1x country. Can your friend meet you in japan instead?

    If you want multiple place try to move in 1x direction like just take flight straight to Korea, finish your business there, fly to Osaka and go straight to Nagoya do your business there stay a night then move to Tokyo area do your thing then go home. That way, save some travel time. Your day is 18 July to Nagoya from Roponggi and back. It will be too much, and try to allow time for breakfast, lunch, travel time, and resting time. Maybe for a solo traveller, it is possible, like waking up early and getting back very late, then running through and limiting yourself like 1-2hrs per place, then rushing your bfast and lunch time.

    I did that kind of flight arrangement one way trip and actually ended up cheaper.

11. i wouldn’t advise doing seoul on this trip. I know it’s tempting to go see your friend because you feel “close” but it just largely isn’t a good use of time.

    Training to the airport in tokyo, flying to Seoul, going through immigration, then training from ICN into Seoul is going to take WAY more time than you’re expecting. you’re looking at almost a full day of travel for this, not to mention doing it in reverse again. For reference, I flew from Seoul to Osaka (KIX) and the time between leaving the first hotel and checking in again was nearly 10 hours.

12. Potentially worth looking at multi city flight tickets with Asiana and either starting/finishing your trip in Seoul.